


are we out of the woods yet?

by amazingjemma



Series: 1987 [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. RPF
Genre: F/M, Off-screen Relationship(s), Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 08:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4659732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazingjemma/pseuds/amazingjemma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the morning they are good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	are we out of the woods yet?

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-ed by lovely Diana aka jemsfitz on tumblr. Also, she added some things, so she is also a so author (unfortunately, she doesn't have account here). If you wanna cry about fitzsimmons or caestridge, I am amazingjemma on tumblr. I hope, you enjoy this.

_We were built to fall apart,_

_Then fall back together._

 

Iain has always been a heavy sleeper. That was his main, and he would like to think only flaw. On early grey mornings in Scotland he would sleep till midday and be very grumpy for the rest of it, he just wasn’t one for early wakings. When he was filming, though, he tried to wake up as early as possible. During the first season of shield he had asked Chloe to wake him up, the earlier the better. She did an amazing job, sometimes too great and Iain would show up on the lot before anyone else, his timing was perfect and cracking in a little sleep before it erupted in noise or someone knocked on his car window, other times she would wake him up just to text him later and announce there was no filming scheduled for today, he always got her back for those days though, he hoped.

He opened his eyes to the streaming sunlight and looked at the wall clock, immediately reminded of where he was. Almost 10 am. For a second he wondered if Elizabeth woke up, but the silence in the flat assured him that she was still asleep. Of course, Iain thought, even I would sleep the whole day after a drunken night. Iain awkwardly crawled out of the most uncomfortable couch and rubbed his neck, cursing everything in the world. He should have stayed in the car, it would have been much better and more comfortable.

Turning his head, he noticed a little black fluff ball, lying at Elizabeth's bedroom door making small deplorable sounds. Sighing, he stood up and walked towards the door, lifting up the fluffy thing. There are a couple of things Iain can’t walk away from, and one of them is a crying puppy.

“Hey, buddy.” Iain scratched the Maggie's ear, as she excitedly wagged her tail and licked his face, he let her go after that noticing a familiar sound in his stomach, the dog happily followed him around the kitchen and it made him wondered how he managed not to notice her yesterday, “It seems like your mum is about to sleep the whole day, huh? Maybe I should make breakfast, you hungry?” Maggie preceded to excitedly wag her tail and run around him.

After feeding Maggie, Iain continued on with his breakfast fest. Liz probably won't be in her constant “I-have-to-cook-something” state, so it was Iain's turn to make her breakfast.

About an hour later, he was in the middle of making toast, when he heard a loud groan. Iain smirked and put on the kettle, waiting for Elizabeth with a glass of water and pills on the dining table.

“Don't you even say anything”, Elizabeth whispered, entering the kitchen area with her hands on her head, glancing at Iain. He look so smug that Liz just wanted to punch him in his perfect little smug face.

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Sure, Iain. I'm perfectly sure you have this whole ‘told you so’ speech in your head ready.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Iain’s grin surprisingly got larger, making Liz a little more irritated.

“Oh, shut up.” Liz grimaced and quickly disappeared into the bathroom.

Still grinning, Iain poured tea in Elizabeth's cup and helped himself to another serving, waiting for her return from bathroom. All of a sudden his train of thought spiraled out of control, did she remember what happened last night? Was she still in the mood for ‘the talk’? The ‘us’ talk? The maybe ‘this would just be it’ talk? He wanted to believe she was. Even though he was terrified at first, there’s a part of him that really just wants to lay it all on the table, stop second guessing and maybe just finally figure out where they stand in all of this. Her drunken call last night proved to Iain that she still remembers them, that she feels something right? After all, there are no lies when a drunk person talks. Either way he didn't want to lose their relationship, their friendship, no matter how difficult and stained and tangled they were. At the end of the day, he just wanted her in his life. Whatever Elizabeth wanted.

“So, what do we have?” Elizabeth approached still a little disheveled but she was smiling now, sitting at the table and waiting for homemade-Iain-breakfast. It seemed like she was absolutely thrilled with what was happening right now and nothing seems to be bothering her, at least from what he can tell – he knows after he’s had a couple of drinks in him he’s full of total slumpyness and would rather stay in bed all day. It wasn't the first time Iain was responsible for breakfast. In fact, he enjoyed cooking, especially for Elizabeth and it seemed that she did too since she keyed the phrase ‘homemade-Iain-breakfast’ which started a whole chain of cast-Iain-home-cooking.

“Nothing special. Just typical english breakfast.”

Elizabeth laughed and embraced her cup with her hands, thankfully looking at him.

~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the breakfast was spent in silence. Iain was staring at the window now, not quite sure what to do next. They were supposed to have the talk, but did she remember it? Was she ready? Was he ready? Was it better not to change everything? Did she want to be his girlfriend? Wait, what?! GIRLFRIEND? Do I want her to be my girlfriend? Of course I do, shut up Iain. He had a lot of questions, but no answers.

Elizabeth was silent, too. She did her best to not stare at him, and instead stared at the wooden table eating her toast, pretty sure that if she kept on she would burn a hole into it. He isn't leaving, she thought, so he remembers. Last night was one of the most embarrassing nights Elizabeth has ever had. She still felt guilty for dragging Iain out of his flat late at night, but her actions made her look weak, something she does not normally do. She could say she felt naked, which by itself is funny because Iain had seen her naked plenty of times……………. Anyways, her call had a purpose and a sense though, she just had to take it out of the haziness that plagued her at the moment.

She took a glance at him and smiled shyly to herself, its better not to keep secrets, she thought, we’ll talk and everything will be fine, but why is it so hard to talk about it?

None of them started a conversation, it’s almost like they refuse to be the barrier of good or bad news. None of them knew.

It seemed like the only person who was in a good mood today was Maggie, for it was looking at Iain and running around his legs, looking for attention. Looking down, Iain picked her up and rubbed her head.

“Maggie loves you”, Elizabeth smiled. And so do I, she added in her thoughts. Wait, what? Did i? Oh no.

“I love her too”, he smiled, looking up at Elizabeth. Just as I love her mum, he stopped and looked at her and she looked at him with her eyes wide and most likely mimicking his face expression. What the hell is happening!? Did he say that out loud? No right? RIGHT?!

The next couple of seconds went by in awkward and confusing silence and then broke as they simultaneously stood up and started mumbling incoherently towards each other, their voices kept getting higher and higher, almost as if they kept trying to make the other listen to them before any awkwardness happen between them: reassurances and trying to make a point about the importance of being understood. During that tango of words, they somehow ended up in the living room, Maggie trailing behind with a face that probably meant confusion but Iain was sure he was just projecting.

“Wait, Liz!” Iain tried to keep his voice even, but failed. “Let's just... start again”.

Liz shook her head and opened her mouth again, trying to say what she wanted to say the most yesterday. “I'm sorry”, her voice was shaking and Iain could swear he heard tears in it. “I started this. All of this. And I feel guilty about it, because you didn't even have a choice...”

“Liz, you didn't...”

“No, let me finish”, Elizabeth raised her hands and took a step backward. “I must confess, at first it was just a game to me, but then I broke up with … and... things changed between us and I can't forget them, no matter how much I try.” She took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around herself, feeling a little bit sick and needing to hold herself together. “But I can't. I can't forget you. Us. Chloe kept telling me that I just needed to find a rebound, that I was lost and confused about the whole breakup and I probably wanted to sleep with a colleague because it was someone I knew and felt comfortable around and probably doesn’t mean a thing, and that if I end up dating them, it’ll bring me no good because I took… you like that, a rebound, a play thing, but I...”, she took another deep breath and looked directly into Iain’s eyes. “I don’t think so. I don’t think I was confused and hurt about the whole break up thing, I think I was confused because I didn’t want to be with him anymore because I was constantly thinking about someone else and then when it happened, I didn’t know how to approach and when I figured it out it hurt because I didn’t know if the person wanted to be with me too, I-” Elizabeth sighed and with a new found strength in her voice she continued, “The person that I want is standing right in front of me, but I made things way to difficult and tangled that I don't know what to do. I can't forget us. I wanted you, I want you.”

That was something Iain wanted to say to her, word for word. He was talking to Brett about it and Nick and even Austin, sometimes he would nudge Chloe but it was difficult because he knew she would see right through him if he spilled, and he wasn’t comfortable with that yet, actually he didn’t know if Elizabeth was comfortable with that yet, they were best friends and all but it seems that Chloe had no idea who Elizabeth was talking about. For a second he wondered who Chloe thought Elizabeth was talking about, because one day Chloe did come up to him and told him ‘you’re losing her man’ and pretended like she hadn’t say anything. He was lost too, and needed reassurance that what they were doing wasn’t wrong. Or bad. Moreover, he didn't want to lose his job – and an opportunity to see Henstridge every fucking day. It wasn't a routine. It was a dream came true.

“I can't forget us either”, Somehow Iain found his voice and took a bold step forward towards her and smiled, “I don't want to, to be honest. I don't consider it as a mistake, you know. I have no regrets. It was just so easy at the beginning, remember? I felt good with you, Liz. I hope you realize that you are very important to me. You are my best friend, and I couldn't quite forget all these nights when we were...” he chuckled and sat on the couch, shaking his head. “We were drunk and you asked me to move the furniture, remember? We ordered a lot of food and Maggie ate the whole pizza when we were just dancing. That's when I realized that you were more than that.”

Liz smiled at him recalling the memories and her brain filter her with more. It was in the middle of filming season two, hiatus, the breakup with her boyfriend happened and she was a bit sad and anxious and Chloe helped, and then jokingly suggested a rebound and liz took that as an excuse a bit... and then she just called Iain and asked him to come over to help her “move things”. They were drunk and they were happy.

“... did you just quote Fitz?”

“Oh, shut up.”

They both fell silent but then burst into laughter. Maggie once again started running around the room, around Liz's legs, trying to get her owner's attention, but then she sort of gave up, jumping on Iain's lap.

“Oh, look, someone’s jealous!”

“Well, maybe I'll date Maggie, huh? Whatcha say, babe?”

Iain looked at the little black dog, whilst Elizabeth pouted and sat next to him, grabbing Maggie from his hands.

“Stay away from my dog.” Elizabeth muttered, hugging her a little, as she called her baby. “She is mine.”

“No way. She is ours now.”

Liz's smile faded and Iain scolded himself for hurrying things up. He looked around for a distraction and noticed his necklace from that night around Liz's neck and somehow forgot about what he previously said as the smile overtook his lips again. In the corner of his eye he noticed that Liz let Maggie go and moved closer.

“Are we... something?”

“Do you want to be?”

That was the same thing Elizabeth said to him last night. But this time, he let her to choose. If she says “yes”, he'll be here. If she says “no”, he'll still be her best friend. With no benefits. Win, Win either way.

“Hopefully, they won't fire us”, Elizabeth whispered leaning her head on his shoulder. “Can we keep it a secret, though? Until we figure things out more, see how It could work… I mean I guess Chloe will find out sooner rather than later.”

“She is Sherlock, huh?”

Nodding her head, Liz just realized this was it, they were a couple. They were a damn couple and that realization completely knocked a breath out of her and will probably changed her world.

“So, are we out of the woods yet?” She breathed, staring at Iain with that gleaming hope in her eyes. He hugged her suddenly, feeling a little bit uncomfortable and anxious.

“In the clear”, Iain whispered.

“Good” Elizabeth smiled wrapping her arms around him and letting them wonder as she nudge her head between his head and shoulder.

Iain was right. In the morning they were going to be good. In the morning they are alright.

 

_The rest of the world was black and white,_

_But we were in screaming color._

 


End file.
